Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac Launches, Saves Up to 20 GB of Virtual Machine Storage Space, Starts Four Times Faster, and Is Ready for macOS Mojave

Version 14 has over 50 new features, including improvements in performance, graphics, and support for new technologies, plus the newest versions of Parallels Toolbox and Parallels Access for Mac and Windows.

Through Parallels Desktop 14, customers now have access to more Windows features on Mac than ever before.

Enhanced Storage Optimisation

Typically, virtual machines are large, taking anywhere from 15–100 GBs of space or more. With two different storage mechanisms at work (Windows and Mac), newly engineered storage optimisation that takes both Windows and Mac mechanisms into account can result in significant disk space savings.*

Keep Melting the Border between Windows and Mac

Parallels Desktop 14 now enables customers to use Microsoft Ink to edit Microsoft Office for Windows documents on a Mac, including pressure-sensitive support in applications such as PowerPoint, Microsoft Edge, CorelDRAW, Fresh Paint, Leonardo, openCanvas and Photoshop for Windows.**

“Millions of Parallels Desktop customers highly value performance and efficiency. With Parallels Desktop 14, we’ve taken those to the next level by focusing on graphics and storage, allowing customers to save as much as 20 GB of disk space while enjoying the best-ever performance,” said Jack Zubarev, Parallels president.

The Parallels Desktop Touch Bar Wizard makes it easy for users to customise the Touch Bar for thousands of Windows applications, so their function key shortcuts are at their fingertips when using the applications.

“Personal productivity enhancements include more Windows features available on Mac devices. Touch Bar™ support for Windows applications—such as OneNote or Quicken—enables customers to add their favorite applications to the Mac Touch Bar so their shortcuts are at their fingertips,” added Zubarev.

Additionally, with the use of Touch Bar XML Authoring, users can further personalise the Touch Bar with their own customised function key shortcuts for their favorite Windows applications.

macOS Mojave–Ready

Parallels Desktop 14 supports Dark Mode. Quick Look issued on Windows files now shows quick actions. Support for additional Mojave features, which are currently in development, will be tested, finalised and introduced around the forthcoming public release of Mojave.

The Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac installation image, which is notarised by Apple®, will be seen by users when it is installed on Mojave.

Enhanced Graphic Support and 4K Shared Camera Support

Parallels Desktop 14 now features improved OpenGL support for enhanced graphics, with notable improvements in SketchUp 2017/2018, CTVox, DIALux 8 and OriginLab.

All view modes have been improved in terms of speed and memory usage, which is especially important when working on multiple high-resolution external displays, including those of 5K resolutions.

Unused virtual video memory is now effectively returned to Mac system memory. Auto mode for graphics allows Windows to use more than 2 GB of Mac system memory for video purposes, while allowing Windows applications to use it when possible.***

Additionally, users now get a better frame rate in video conferencing and can use shared camera technology with cameras that support up to 4K resolutions.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition

New Business Edition features include enhanced management, plus security and licensing portals. Additional improvements include:

• Smart card readers are now automatically available in both Mac and Windows for faster access (if enabled).
• Administrators can invite users via email and assign separate administrators for sublicenses for improved efficiency.****
• Replace existing virtual machines in Deployment Mode to streamline productivity.
• Applications deployed in the Single Application mode start faster, along with a new modern-looking splash screen.
• The Parallels “My Account” portal has been redesigned to be optimised for popular use cases.****

More than 30+ Single-Click Utilities from Parallels Toolbox for Windows and Mac

New and popular Parallels Toolbox tools include:

• Screenshot Page – Capture and print lengthy webpages that don’t fit onto your screen. Take and print screenshots of webpages in one click—even pages longer than your browser screen.
Watch demo videos: “How to Capture Lengthy Webpages – “Snagit 2018 vs. Parallels Toolbox” and “How to Capture a Full Webpage Screenshot with a Safari Extension”
• Free Memory – Reclaim RAM memory and optimise its consumption on your Mac. Add this Free Memory tool to the macOS menu bar to easily check how much RAM is available with just a click and reclaim available memory.
• Resize Images – Batch convert images to your desired file size and format. Simply drag the source images to the tool’s window, specify the desired dimensions/size and output location, and click.

Parallels Desktop 14 Performance

Significant performance improvements include:

• Up to 200 percent performance improvement on the iMac Pro® (audio and video encoding, AI, 3D modelling, cryptography and other complex math calculations workloads) thanks to AVX512 Intel Cannon Lake processor instructions set support
• Up to 80 percent faster application launch
• Up to 10 percent faster boot time
• Up to 30 percent faster suspend operation on APFS partition
• Up to 130 percent more frames per second in Shared Camera
• Up to 17 percent more frames per second in Coherence view mode

The CPU usage indicator has been added to the title bar to give a better understanding of high CPU usage in Windows.

Resource Monitor is completely redesigned to show Mac resources along with the impact that multiple virtual machines have on them.